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Knowledge
The GB Rowing Team is the high performance arm of British Rowing. Rowing is the nation’s most continuously successful Olympic sport, having won a gold medal in every Olympic Games since 1984, and has won six Paralympic golds since the sport was introduced to the Paralympic Games programme in 2008.
GB Rowing Team
Rower // Women's Squad Date of Birth: 22nd Aug 1991 (31 years old) Club: Southampton Coalporters ARC Height: 174.00 Hometown: Southampton
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Caragh McMurtry, a medallist at world junior and U23 level, was part of the senior women’s eight at the 2013 and 2014 World Rowing Championships but saw injury keep her out of the 2015 season.
McMurtry, who got into the sport through British Rowing’s Project Oarsome scheme, has also won a hat-trick of European Championship medals.
She began 2017 in the new-look women’s eight, winning silver at the World Cup in Poznan, before moving to the pair for the Lucerne regatta, where she won the B final with Sam Courty.
At the World Rowing Championships in Sarasota-Bradenton, McMurtry was selected in the women’s four, winning the B final by over a length.
A medallist at World Junior and U23 level, Caragh raced with the women’s eight at the 2013 and 2014 World Championships
©Peter Spurrier/Intersport Images
2014
European Silver Medallist Women's Eight
2012
World U23 and European Silver Medallist Women's Pair
European Bronze Medallist Women's Eight
2009
World Junior Silver Medallist Women's Four
McMurtry started the Olympiad in a second GB women’s quad scull at the World Cup in Eton Dorney, coming fifth. She was then selected for the eight and finished just outside the medals on her world championships debut in Chungju.
She remained in the eight throughout 2014 and won a silver medal at the European Championships in Belgrade. Bronze medals followed at the World Cups in Aiguebelette and Lucerne before the GB eight, with McMurtry in the stroke seat, finished sixth at the World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam.
The 2012 season saw her forge a good partnership with Olivia Carnegie-Brown in the women’s pair, winning silver at both the World Rowing U23 Championships in Trakai and the European Championships in Varese. They also doubled up in the eight at the latter event, winning bronze.
She gained her first GB seat at the Munich International Regatta in 2009, winning silver in the women’s pair and gold in the four. She also raced in the latter boat at that year’s World Junior Championships in Brive, claiming a fine silver.
Club: Reading University BC Boat: Women’s Squad Role: Rower Coaches: James Harris Learnt to Row: Coalporters ARC Original Club(s): Coalporters ARC Original Coach(es): Eira Parry
McMurtry began rowing at Coalporters ARC through British Rowing’s “Project Oarsome” scheme and competed on the coastal rowing circuit for five years before moving to river rowing.
A keen artist, she has sold work on commission and loves to draw or paint on paper, canvas and furniture. She said: “I constantly have new ideas and hoard art supplies for future undertakings.” She does not want to rely on her hobby as her sole source of income, though, and would like to work in the mental health profession when her rowing career finishes.
Her family now live in Cork, where she spent her family holidays growing up. Her dad would be among her dream dinner guest companions, along with Morrissey and Ben Stiller – star of her favourite film, Zoolander.
If stranded on a desert island, she would take the following three things with her: boyfriend Mikey, her family and her cats – she chills out with on the sofa after training. M83, Chvrches, Nero, The Prodigy and System of a Down provide the soundtrack to her ergo training but she likes to wind down by listening to Morrissey, The Smiths, Crowded House and Fleetwood Mac.
McMurtry is Lottery funded through UK Sport.
